Franco Mondini-Ruiz (born 1961) is an American artist who lives and works in New York and San Antonio, Texas. His work questions notions of preciousness and art-market exclusivity within a camp sensibility. Mondini-Ruiz takes a variety of approaches to creating art, working in installation, performance, painting, sculpture, and short stories. El Papito is from Mondini-Ruiz's ongoing project Infinito Botánica, a series of installations and interventions that references Mexican botánicas - general stores that sell folk medicine, religious items and magical products - common in Hispanic America. Mondini-Ruiz has presented different versions of Infinito Botánica including those at ARCO in Madrid (2002), and the UCLA Fowler Museum, LA (2004). His solo exhibitions include the New Museum, New York (2001), and the Newark Museum of Art (2007); group exhibitions include the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2003), the Prague Biennial (2005), and the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian (2008).

Funds raised by the C Magazine Benefit Auction will directly support C Magazine and its programming. C Magazine is published by C The Visual Arts Foundation, a registered charitable organization established to present ideas, advance education and document contemporary visual art and artist culture (charitable no 88643 1162 RR0001)